 
| Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Genres: Classic, Historical Fiction |
I am an eclectic reader. There aren't many books that I don't like, but this book I just could not get into at all. It was a chore to read and I felt that I was just plodding on to finish it. I was very tempted to not finish it at all.
First of all, Robinson Crusoe is a preachy bible thumper, when it suits his purpose. He is quick to judge others, but doesn't hold himself to the same standards. At one point he stops and thinks that it just would not be Christian to slay the cannibalistic savages who have done no harm to him personally. That it is up to God to judge them. Yet later in the book, when different strangers approach, he and his group just starts killing them with no apparent confrontation to proceed this action. While I am not over religious, I don't mind the occasional theological reference or theory, but the apparent hypocrisy in this story just really chafed me.
Secondly, as I mentioned in my first impressions, the imagery just was not there for me. I had a hard time picturing what was going on. When I can't picture the scene and surroundings, I'm just not involved in the story and my mind begins to wander while my eyes continue to peruse the text. You will often see me say that a book was hard to put down, while this one was hard to pick up.
The Kindle version of this book that I had downloaded had many mistakes in it, and several pages missing. There transcriber just put in a note saying such and such page was missing from their copy. I'm not sure if they meant to go back and put it in and forgot, or what. At first it was annoying, but as I got closer to the end and found THREE pages missing, I have to admit my thought was "Oh good, three less pages for me to muddle through."
This book made me want to read The Bible. Not because of Crusoe's rabid spewing of bible verses but mainly because if I can plod through this book, I should be able to make it through The Bible easily, even though I normally lose interest during the begats.
1 star.
As with most classics, this book is within the public domain and available for download as a free ebook on amazon and goodreads.
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